We’re proud to announce that German ritualistic black/death metal warlords Ch'ahom officially join Sentient Ruin, and to celebrate this unholy alliance we're proud to bring you the "Camazotz Cult" limited edition career-encompassing cassette tape compilation of the band's entire discography to this day, spanning all the band's long sold out demo tapes from 2016 to 2021, repackaged and remastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios into a glorious one-hour long onslaught of total sonic savagery.
This vast and comprehensive restored retrospective both anticipates Ch'ahom's new era forthcoming (with the imminent release of their first official EP and first official full-length album which will follow shortly thereafter) and revisits the origins and existence so far of one of the most barbaric and animalistic entities to have appeared in the German extreme metal underground in recent years. The eighteen bludgeoning tracks here presented show us the band developing their sound and concept over a five-year span of cryptic obscurity, reworking the legendary warcraft of bestial black/death/grind legends like Beherit, Sadogoat, Blasphemy, Sarcófago and Proclamation into an occult and esoteric canvas exploring exotic ancient war cults and death rituals from pre-Columbian South and Central America. The end result is a gruesome terrorscape in which ancient visions of violence, ritualism, mysticism and bloodshed are joined into a ruthless aural assault of total black/death chaos and destruction. The feral aura and lawless primitivism seen on these tracks is further exalted by a raw and blown out production quality which has given a unique and appropriate character to the music through a methodic approach clearly descended from a punk and DIY culture which has vastly enhanced and characterized the superb vision and uniqueness behind the cult of Ch'ahom and its uncompromising craft.
Tracks 1-7 from the "The Raid of the Tzitzimime" demo tape (2016)
Tracks 8-10 from the "Oblation" demo tape (2016)
Tracks 11-13 from the "Path to Ixtab" demo tape (2018)
Tracks 14-18 from the "Lustfully Sinning for Death Metal" demo tape (2021)
"Camazotz Cult" is slated for an April 7 2023 official release date worldwide via Sentient Ruin, and both digital and cassette tape formats are now pre-order able via all our channels.
The origins of Ch'ahom can be traced as far back as 2016, when the band begun issuing a steady string of cryptic demo tapes in the German underground, up until 2021. During this time frame the band had displayed a blown out, raw and feral sound clearly worshipping bands like Von, Sadomator, Sadogoat, Beherit and other similar primitive black/death gods. These demos captured the eye of Sentient Ruin who made contact with the band right when a change in their sound and songwriting was happening and the ground for a glorious and genre-defying debut album was being prepared. Perfect timing. While the tracks from all these earlier demos are now remastered by Sentient Ruin for the 2023 “Camazotz Cult“ cassette tape restropective compilation here presented, the once simple, short and fast songs from the band’s early days are meanwhile giving way to new compositions stretching out into atmospheric lengths and being punctuated and exalted by the unique technicality, atmospheres and more slowed down paces reminiscent of iconic US and Finish Death Metal bands like Morbid Angel, Time Ghoul, Infester, Demilich, and Abhorrence, creating a masterful symbiosis between the animalistic violence from their origins and the band’s newfound sense of atmosphere and evocative musical storytelling of their present incarnation.
Far from ending there, Ch'ahom's music has begun showcasing also marked prog influences derived from the band's appreciation of 70's English bands like Yes and Camel. This multilayered evolution is now creating a sound that appears vast, relentless, and frenzy-like, almost bordering on insanity, as will be showcased on their upcoming mid-2023 debut EP “Ts'ono'ot”, a glorious, ten-minute single track prelude to the majestic carnage lurking ahead later in the year with the advent of their official debut full-length album for Sentient Ruin,“Knots of Abhorrence”. This outreach toward more complex and unpredictable composition is completed and complemented by the band's long running theme and subject matter, offering a glimpse into a parallel dimension beyond the purely musical material itself: lyrical themes, concepts, and aesthetics dealing with different prehispanic cultures, their rituals and their art. With their music dowsed in magick, blood, and violence, Ch'ahom try to establish a connection to a subconscious horror we all face in our lives, still to this day, that has been a driving force behind many mythical and mystical traditions that have originated throughout the centuries all around the globe. The accumulation of these influences make this Essen, Germany-based horde a far more complex and thought-provoking entity than the average goat-worshipping black/death band most of us are used to being accustomed with. Ch'ahom are a nightmare simulation, a terror emanating from deep below, screaming from the caverns in the earth in which humanity has hid for centuries from the powers beyond our rational understanding, emanating from the crevices in our super-ego that reveal a direct pathway to the urges we repress. Ch'ahom are the opposite of meditation, an endless onslaught of thoughts, wishes, dreams, fears, impossible to shut out, an overwhelming and maddening samsara.